Monday, February 27, 2012

Week 5/Projections I Student Spotlights

This week we began Part I of a two part series investigating map projections. The lab required students to create (1) map with three data frames allowing us to view three different projection types. In the end, students were able to see how using different projections can result in varied land area measurements for select counties in the state of Florida. 

This week's "Student Spotlight" awards go to:

Mariko Polk

Mariko is a UWF GIS Cert. student also majoring in Environmental Resource Management at California State University Bakersfield. Mariko has done an excellent job in class and I'm excited to include her in this week's student spotlight.

What we like: overall design and layout, colors, table and units of measure in the table makes this map very easy to view and understand.

 More: Check out Mariko's Week 5 blog post.


Lauren LeRoy
Lauren recently graduated from Florida International University with a BA in Geography. After taking a GIS course at FIU she decided to pursue a GIS certificate at UWF.  Lauren currently works as a paralegal. I'm impressed by Lauren's work and happy to include her in this week's spotlight.

What we like: title, labels, tables and overall ease of use. Lauren makes this look easy :)
 More: Check out Lauren's Week 5 post.


Anne Dodd
Anne is a hydrogeologist in West Palm Beach, Florida, working for the State. She has experience working with GIS in both private and public sectors.  Anne has done well in all assignments this semester and I'm pleased to spotlight her work this week.


What we like: We really like Anne's color-coded table.  The maps for this assignment are supplemental to the quantitative results (area measurements). The table is placed above maps showing greater importance - right on.  Finally, Anne's process summary includes essential details.


More: Check out Anne's Week 5 post.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Week 4/GIS and Cartography Student Spotlights

Any assignment focused on making maps using a GIS must begin with an important qualification: 

“GIS is not just about making maps”

Cartographic output, however, is the most common product of GIS analyses and is an essential skill. While a GIS project can just as easily end up with information displayed as numbers or tables, spatial information is usually displayed best as a map.

In this exercise, students were introduced to ArcCatalog where they practiced viewing and editing spatial data sets. After becoming familiar with the data, they created maps like the one's highlighted below.  Students learned how to create new layers from a query or selection as well as how to select only specific attributes for labeling. Once the final layers were ready, labels were converted to annotation in order to manipulate labels individually.


This week's Student Spotlight goes to:

When Adriano isn't working on our GIS assignments or visiting family or playing soccer or diving or... he works at the European Union Satellite Centre - an EU agency that supports the decision-making of the European Union in the field of the Common Foreign and Security Policy.
  
What we like: color scheme, layout and overall design. Lat/Long grid lines.

More: See Adriano's Week 4 blog post


Brian Deem
Brian comes to us with a background in land surveying. He spent his 20 year career in the Army doing geodetic surveying and now he has is own GIS consulting and data collection company. 

What we like: meters (unit of measure) included on the elevation legend, map layout and personalized logo.






More: See Brian's Week 4 blog post

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Week 3 Student Spotlights

Week 3 assignment came from ESRI's Learning ArcGIS Desktop virtual campus course.  The course introduces the fundamental concepts of GIS and the major functionality contained in ArcGIS® Desktop software. Students completed select modules and were required to complete two maps and a process summary. 

The following students did exceptional work with the assignment:

Katherine Michael - A Maritime Studies major at the University of West Florida completing the University of West Florida GIS certificate program as a minor.  

What we liked: We like how Katherine included  details about each property. She went beyond the requirements of the assignment and the information is useful. 

More: follow Katherine's GIS blog

 

 
 Alex Fowlkes -a geography major at JSU graduating in the summer. After taking a few GIS courses at JSU, he knew he wanted to further his knowledge in the field.

What we liked:  The layout and call-out boxes for labels.

More: follow Alex's GIS Blog 
 




Friday, February 10, 2012

Week 2 "Student Spotlights"

The following students showed excellence on their "Own Your Map" lab submissions and posts.  An accomplishment well deserved!


Alexis Sutter - Alexis currently works as an Irregular Warfare Analyst.
"I am very excited into diving into GIS.  I feel like once I have GIS/Environmental Science degree/Geography Masters Degree/along with other certificates I will make myself one of the most well rounded geospatial professionals in my line of work."

See her "Own Your Map" post

What we liked: Alexis did a great job of including important details in her process summary. Her map included all required elements, relevant title and easy to interpret design.


 Mohamed Magdy Mohamed Hussain - Mohamed has been working in the surveying engineering industry since 2003.  He looks forward to improving his skills in GIS in order to change his career path.

See his "Own Your Map" post

 What we liked: Mohamed did an excellent job on the map - it included all required elements and was very easy to interpret.  He also created an ideal process summary.


Shane Smith - (not pictured) We think Shane has done a nice job of "Owning" his map (below)... take a look at his blog for more examples.